Using the Students At Risk Mapping Tool
The Tool’s spreadsheet is divided into two sections:
- Data extracted from CASES21 to assist you to identify which students are at risk of early school leaving (the left-hand side of the spreadsheet)
- Columns for you to list all of the support programs you broker or deliver for students at risk, and to chart which students are engaged in which programs (the right-hand side).
Extracting the data about the risk factors experienced by students at your school is relatively quick and easy.
Gathering information about which students are engaged in support programs will take longer and require consultation with key staff.
Reading the map for meaning and deciding what to do about it is the most important stage. Spending time analysing what the data can tell you about your school can be rewarded with better coordination of support programs, better matching of students to support, and more informed, effective strategic planning.
The information linked below is provided to help you use the Tool most effectively. You might not use the Tool to its full capacity immediately.
Schools that participated in the trial of the Tool found that, as they became familiar with what the Tool could tell them, they gradually put in place teams and processes to make use of this information. How and when you do this is up to you.
Once you have
- extracted the data from CASES21
- decided which students are at risk, and
- entered the data about which students are engaged in support programs at your school
you can start to analyse this rich source of information.
You might like to explore a sample Students At Risk spreadsheet (Excel - 63Kb) of data about the Year 8s at a real school to get a sense of what your data will look like.
Formatting the data
You should format the data in the way that is most meaningful for your school. Someone with skills in Excel will be required to help with this.
The ‘sort’ function in Excel will allow you to sort students by ‘risk level’, leaving the students you have decided are at risk at the top of the sheet and all other students below.
Most schools will probably choose to divide the data into campuses, year levels, form groups, etc. The ‘sort’, ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ functions of Excel will enable this. It is advisable to create additional worksheets behind the ‘master spreadsheet’ for this purpose, so that although different staff may be working with the data from April 2007 it is still all being kept in the same file.
If you divide the data in any way – such as keeping separate worksheets for each year level or house, or one for high-risk students being case-managed by the student wellbeing or MIPs staff – it is vital that any additions made by staff to these ‘mini-spreadsheets’ are provided to the data guardian for inclusion on the ‘master spreadsheet’.
- If they are not provided the school leadership team will not have a complete set of data, and all information about support programs will have to be re-entered every time the data is ‘refreshed’.
Reading the data
Analysis of the data contained in your ‘master spreadsheet’ will enable you to answer the following questions:
- Are particular risk factors most prevalent in particular cohorts of students? (E.g. students in the same year level, students with the same teacher, students whose parents have a particular occupation code, students with a disability, etc.)
- Is every student that needs support getting it?
- Are some students engaged in too many support programs at once?
- Are students at risk getting relevant support that targets their particular risk factors?
- Are there patterns to be found in which students get support?
- Are there students in our support programs who are not at risk of early school leaving?
- Do we need new or different support programs to meet the needs of particular cohorts of students?
Sharing the data
After referring to the SAR Mapping Tool Privacy Guide - (requires login) (https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/Schools/CASES21/CASES21%20Admin/SAR%20Mapping%20Tool/ ), and in keeping with your school’s information and privacy policy, you may choose to share some of the data with others. The Tool could usefully support student transitions from school to school, campus to campus, and year to year.
When referring a student to an external support program or agency, you could (with permission) provide data regarding the student’s exposure to risk factors associated with early school leaving, and also a history of the internal and external support programs with the which the student has already engaged.
Schools in your cluster or region could compare the internal and external support programs they provide for students at risk of early school leaving.
Aggregate and de-identified data could be used to support cluster and regional planning forums.
‘Time lapse snapshots’ of your data
If you take a series of ‘snapshots’ of the data, you will be able to monitor change over time. It is recommended that you ‘refresh’ your school data no more than three times a year;
- early in the year
- after the first semester VELS results have been entered onto CASES21, and
- in late December when the VELS results have been entered onto CASES21 and before the attendance data is cleared.
Taking annual or biannual snapshots will enable you to compare the results to answer the following questions:
- Are our strategies effectively decreasing our students’ exposure to risk factors, e.g. improving literacy and numeracy outcomes, decreasing suspensions through behaviour management, improving attendance?
- Which support programs are proving most effective in terms of student outcomes?
- Are our internal support programs having the desired impact on the students engaged in them? If not, is there a reason to continue with them?
- Are our external support programs and partner agencies having the desired impact on students engaged with them? If not, is there a reason to continue with them?
- What are the links between particular risk factors and school completion/post-school destinations?